1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, to circuitry for wireless local area networks.
2. Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards, including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, 802.16, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, etc., communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of a plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via a public switch telephone network (PSTN), via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
Each wireless communication device includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier stage. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier stage amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
One particular device that includes such radio circuitry is the wireless access point that is operable to provide wireless access to a network such as the Internet for a wireless terminal, for example, a desktop computer with wireless radio or a wireless terminal (collectively, wireless terminal). Examples of wireless terminals with wireless radios (Bluetooth or WLAN, for example) also include laptop computers, personal digital assistants, cellular handsets having GPS based specialty application devices (e.g., mapping applications, golfing applications, fishing applications, etc.).
Typically, a wireless access point includes firewall circuitry to provide protection for the wireless terminals to prevent hackers from accessing private data within the wireless terminal. Generally, though, wireless access points support I.E.E.E. 802.11 and 802.16 protocol communications but act as a conduit for the communications between a wireless terminal and remote devices operably coupled to the wireless access point by way of a network such as the Internet. Typically, a wireless access point generates a beacon to identify itself to any wireless terminal within range of the beacon. The wireless terminal then selects an access point for attachment from all wireless access points whose beacons have been received.
Radio transceivers are currently being developed for use in many applications including use within wireless access points that are operable to establish point-to-point communications with wireless terminals. In such point-to-point communications, the wireless access point and a mobile terminal become “attached” when a communication link is established. For the purposes of transmitting and receiving data, however, the wireless access point is merely a data conduit and does not operate as a media content server. For example, a typical wireless access point is often configured to operate as a router to provide firewall protection between a network (wired and wireless) and the Internet which providing operating as a conduit between wired and wireless transmission mediums.
In a common configuration, the wireless access point is connected to a broadband modem such as a cable modem or DSL modem. Thus, a remote server often serves as a media content server and delivers the media by way of a network or physical connection through the wireless access point. For example, the wireless access point is often connected to a computer or media access server for delivery of media content to a wireless terminal. In either configuration, however, the wireless access point merely acts as a conduit.
One problem with such traditional wireless access points and associated configurations is that some communications are resource intensive and utilize significant bandwidth of the wireless access point and/or communication channels. Thus, for example, if a plurality of mobile terminals request delivery of streaming video, the wireless access point may not be able to easily satisfy all such requests. Additionally, if resource intensive types of media (e.g., streaming video) are being concurrently transmitted, communication resources for carrying voice or data may be limited thus reducing a number of users that may be serviced.